Teeth, Trust, and Trauma
by In-A-Hat
Summary: Jackson Overland has spent the past two and a half years working as a scavenger for his quaint but still high-strung colony. The pay is a nice percentage in what he finds and an entire floor for his family. This way of life remains constant until he meets Tania Kapoor, a loner with a strange interest in teeth and an all too familiar desire stay safe. Zombie Apocalypse AU.


"Have you been going alone all this time?" The girl asked as she carefully kept the pot over the fire then sat into a more comfortable position. She had dark skin and blue eyes; in the right light they would almost look violet. Her jeans had blotches of dirt, blood, and grass stains. Her hoodie slowly deteriorating after its several scrapings with the outside world. She practically kept all her hair tucked into the green knit cap too, Jackson had noticed.

"No," he answered as he took another spoonful of the beef stew in his cheap plastic bowl.

"How many?" she asked. Her name was Tania, and they had met just an hour ago at the old Ralph's a block away.

"Nine," he told her, "and that's if you're counting the dog."

"Someone's got quite the group," Tania laughed.

Jackson chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. "It's not all that great," he admitted. "They're all kids, and I gotta keep an eye on them since they're so young."

"You sound more like they're babysitter from what I'm hearing," Tania told him right before she took another helping of stew.

Jackson lowered his head and barely tried to hold in his laughter.

Tania's smile stunted for a second then realized what she said, "Wait, you're really their babysitter?"

"Yeah," Jackson answered. "One of them is my sister but it's all the same really," he added. "The whole world has gone to hell and we're just going through it now."

"It's just North America," Tania told him as she scraped the last of stew with her finger. "There might be a few in South America too but I don't think it got that far since they would probably make boarders and stuff to stop them by now," she informed him then licked the sauce off her finger.

"That's good to know," Jackson muttered under his breath.

"Where are you headed?" Tania changed the subject as she took out a huge water bottle and relatively clean rag from her backpack to clean her bowl. "I mean, like, where do you plan on going?"

"I don't have anywhere else to go," he told her. "I can only go back."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Jackson hesitated, he told her too much. He asked himself if he could take the risk giving this stranger more than half the truth. "I'm from a colony," he decided to tell her. She was probably the same age as him but he was still wary with the fact that she could easily kill him with her two machetes. "And I scavenge for them and they give me and the kids a safe place to stay."

Tania could only stare at him, "What else?"

"It's pretty big actually, like it could be a small town."

"No, what else do they have?"

"You can get yourself clean, you can have a good meal, you can do whatever you feel actually."

"Those sound closer to the YMCA lyrics if you ask me," Tania noted.

Jackson choked on his stew.

"Are you okay?" Tania asked.

"Sorry," Jackson told her between his coughs. "You just caught me by surprise."

She chuckled, Jackson noticed once he could finally breathe properly.

"What about you?" Jackson asked.

"What about me?" Tania paraphrased.

Jackson's mouth made a thin line. "Like, do you have anyone? Or even a place to stay?"

She shook her head, "Nope, I've been on my own for quite a while."

A pit in Jackson's stomach began to form after hearing that. "Oh…"

"Can I, can I go with you?" Tania asked in a careful tone.

"You can follow me there but is there anything you can do?"

"I know French, Russian, Indian, and American Sign Language, have 4 years of Karate under my belt along with 3 years of fencing," Tania listed off. "And I've been fighting off the undead for about 5 months _without a gun._"

Jackson went a bit wide-eyed from that. "You've made your point, let's get going." He said as he picked himself up, put on his backpack, and grabbed his wooden bat.

"Glad you agree," Tania told him as she wrapped one of her machetes' blades with a worn but durable blanket, the other was ready in her hand once she was up and off her butt.

They peaked through the door, scanning for anything. Jackson pushed the door open and the two made their way downstairs. Tania rushed to the front door and peeked through its peephole.

"Nope," she simply said as she backed away.

Jackson didn't ask, he could practically hear the monsters outside, clawing at the sealed door.

"What now?" Jack asked.

"We can either go through the back door or the roof," Tania suggested.

"The back door's boarded up," Jack told her.

Tania rolled her eyes. "It's the roof then," she said then ran back up.

Jackson quickly followed as they proceeded to the attic. He managed to catch up to Tania as she pulled the cord for the door to the attic. "You got everything with you, right?"

"Yep," Jackson answered as they climbed up.

The attic was tiny and was littered with dust and cardboard boxes. The two made went to the window, slowly pushed it open, and then leaned forward for a better view.

The gap was about 3 feet wide and over 20 feet deep.

"I think we can make that jump," Jackson told her as he gave her a wide grin.

Tania's constant neutral stare changed to surprise. With no thought of consequence, Tania stuck her fingers in his mouth and searched for any cavity but found none in the process. "Your teeth," she started. "They're perfect. How did you manage to keep them this way? Do you have a dentist there or is there just enough supplies to distribute?"

"Ob," Jackson grunted.

"What?" Tania asked as she removed her now spit covered fingers out of his mouth.

"Job," Jackson repeated as he covered his mouth in shock. "When I say scavenge, I don't just mean food," he informed her. "We grab medicine, hygiene products, clothes, tools, and if we're lucky, anything that with entertainment value."

Tania wiped her hands on her jeans as she listened, she glanced back at the gap and saw limp bodies walk and sway past each other. "Do a lot people have your job or is it something that they try to keep as low as possible for death count?" She asked as she perched herself on top of the window sill.

"You ask a lot of questions," Jackson noted.

"I want to know as much as I can before I start living there," she told him then jumped over the gap.

"What?" a surprised Jackson yelped. "_I_ never said you could live there, a council member has to give permission or else we're both in big trouble!" he said as he jumped after.

"What kind of trouble?" Tania asked, waiting for Jackson to pick himself off the tiles.

"'We can die' or 'kicked out' trouble," Jackson scold.

Tania actually pouted from the news to Jackson's surprise, like it was just a minor inconvenience. "Let's keep going," she told him as they went to the other side of the roof.

"So I'm thinking if they do get pissed by it, you tell them about all your talents and hopefully they'll give you a job," Jackson told her, though just saying it to ease his nerves.

They made idle conversation about the colony Jackson lived in for the next hour or so. After finding a nice one story house to get back to ground, Jackson and Tania made haste and rushed to the borders of the colony before the last light.

Jackson dragged his hand over the wall then felt the indention of one of its doors and pried it open with his hands. The two slid through the opening and just as quickly closed the door.

* * *

**Due to a severe writer's block, I decided to make another story to keep on writing. I might not be as dedicated to this as I am with The Frost Siblings but that all depends on how it's received to the public.**

**Now it's time to get back to work!**


End file.
